When Spring Comes
by Tsukiko no Yuki
Summary: [Complete][HitsuHina, oneshot]'Just this once. Just this once, let the spring awaken from its slumber and melt the winter's snow away.'


**Disclaimer: **I don't own Bleach, unfortunately. T.T;

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He was the winter. And she was the spring. 

That was just the way it was.

When the snow and ice had covered every single corner of the ground, the spring would come and make it all melt away, letting beautiful flowers with wondrous scents bring joy to the people, and the hard, icy winds would be replaced by soft, warm breezes.

And the winter would chase the spring, trying to make itself acknowledged. But the spring always ran to the summer.

Always.

Even if the spring knew that the summer would bring an end to itself; even if the spring knew that the summer never acknowledged her; even if the spring had nothing to show to impress the summer – because spring's idol was the summer, so the spring tried to do its best to be like the summer.

But like the winter was never acknowledged by the spring, the spring was never acknowledged by the summer.

And just like Hinamori only saw Hitsugaya as her little brother, Aizen only saw Hinamori as his vice captain.

But now summer was gone. Spring had fallen asleep, and winter roamed the Soul Society, though not in the Court of Pure Souls, but in the rest of the world of the dead.

Hitsugaya's footsteps made prints in the snow as he walked slowly to the house where he once had lived in Rukongai with Hinamori and the one that took care of them, 'grandmother'. How long hadn't it been since they were here last, he and Hinamori… and their 'grandmother' was already dead.

"Whew, it's cold," Matsumoto Rangiku, his vice captain, remarked with a shiver. "The spring's late this year. I wonder why…"

She fell in silence as she saw her motionless captain, staring blankly at the house. He didn't seem to notice the cold at all. But then again, his specialty was cold.

"I'm going to see if there's anything to buy around," she informed him as she walked away, wondering in her mind if he was alright… but decided to leave him alone, seeing how she knew he'd just reply, 'I'm fine', anyway.

Hitsugaya didn't listen. His mind was filled with 'if's and 'but's.

_If I had just managed to kill Aizen… _

_If I had just managed to convince her that he was lying…_

_If I had managed to rescue her in time…_

_Then she…_

_… wouldn't be like this._

He reminded himself of her eyes filled with despair, of the words that he knew were on her mind that she didn't utter – 'help me' – the confusion that she had worn on her face, the shock…

… the _guilt_…

Not once since the Aizen 'incident' had he blamed her of the betrayal. In fact, he was more shocked than disappointed, or even angry. The fact that he was so angry was actually because _he _felt guilty for making her so sad about 'betraying' him.

And he was angrier over the fact that Aizen had done such a thing to her – making her cry, become confused and sad, causing this whole thing…

But even though his highest wish was Aizen's death, he also had a very important wish – no, desire – that could rival the aforementioned.

He wanted her to wake up. He wanted her to be okay.

The most important of all, he wanted her to forget about Aizen. And he wanted to see her smile.

That smile he had secretly loved for such a long time…

The words 'love' and 'Hitsugaya-taichou' were mostly never related to each other, as Hitsugaya was said to be as cold as winter, seeing how his Bankai was ice itself. And love… well, love was warm, love was…

… spring.

And Hinamori was the spring itself. She was the spring… for him.

Hitsugaya closed his eyes. _But… _

… this year, spring is late. It has been said that they don't know if spring will come at all. So, please…

_Just this once. Just this once, let the spring awaken from its slumber and make the winter's snow and ice melt away._

_Just this once, let the spring bring joy again. Let the winter fade away… _

He opened his eyes again, just to find, surprised, that the snow had stopped falling. The clouds were parting, and the sun found its way back to the sky._ Could it be…?_

Suddenly, he heard footsteps rushing towards him. It was Rangiku, and her face wore a mixed expression of happiness, astonishment and excitement. "Taichou! I got some news from Unohana-taichou just now!"

"Nanda? Unohana? How did you get…?"

"She sent a shinigami here! Taichou, Hinamori-chan has… she has awakened!"

Hitsugaya looked up at the sky again, speechless. Then, he uttered a little 'heh' with a smirk. _The spring has come. At last._

_

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_I hope this wasn't really bad. o.x; I just wrote this in the middle of my essay-writing, so it's my first HitsuHina fic - and drabble oneshot - ever. It's also only the third fic I've ever written in which not a single trace of SasuSaku can be found. XD 


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